Let's Tech Communicate!

February

Luke Pivac shares the latest trends in technical communication from around the world.

In this issue – we see how technical communicators can listen to social media to improve technical content, and we find out if marketing is the future of technical communication. Plus we investigate infographics, authoring tools for start-ups and a new section on translation and localisation of technical content. This and a whole lot more from around the Net!

Out of this world

First up, we look at how we can listen to social media to improve technical content. Raymond Calbay finds out how information about companies and their products (including instruction manuals) is being exchanged on a daily basis. He explores how technical communicators can extract clues from the chatter in the world of social media.

In his presentation the future of technical communication is marketing, Scott Abel believes it is important to break down barriers and put all of a company’s content creators in one room. He discusses the challenges of content inconsistency and explains why he thinks that marketing is the future of technical communication.

Benefits of tech communication

Check out how infographics are taking the world by storm. In the article Infographics: Text and image combined in a compact format, technical communication academic professor Steffen-Peter Ballstaedt discusses the history and benefits of infographics and their impact on technical communication.

The newbie tech communicator's toolbox

In the ever-growing industry of cloud-based software as a service (SaaS), more start-up companies are cropping up around the world. This has an impact on the technical communication industry and the constantly changing tools that we use. Tom Johnston investigates this further with a guest blog by Vinish Garg in an article called Authoring tools for Start ups.

Take a peek through the eyes of a newbie tech communicator by reading Kaylin Tristano’s insights in Technical Writer in Training: “ I Get Paid to Explain Things to People”.

Translations and localisation of technical content

If you’re interested in translation and localisation of technical writing, two articles explore various aspects and strategies.

In content management and localisation: finding the right fit, Bill Swallow explains why it’s important to find the right fit when you are looking for a CMS that supports localisation. He believes the catch is when the scope of your localisation differs from what the technology offers.

Also, Terena Bell, CEO of ‘In Every Language’ and Secretary of the Board for the Globalisation and Localisation Association (GALA), highlights six reasons to centralize translation. The benefits range from saving time and money to improving efficiency. According to Terena, the key is ensuring you have a long-term and effective translation strategy.

Future trends

[Spoof alert!] Finally, Tom Johnston attempts to predict the year ahead in his blog I’d rather be writing. Included in Tom’s top 10 writing predictions for 2015 are some amazing observations about 3D printing, underwater documentation, and how converting to PDF has become a new religion.

Of course, you may prefer to read his real top 10 writing predictions for 2015.

See you next month.

Luke Pivac, TechCommNZ Committee member